Iraqi naval forces have seized an oil tanker flying the Liberian flag near the southern port of Basra for carrying undocumented fuel, in what officials say is a major step in a broader campaign to combat oil smuggling and unauthorised exports through Iraqi waters.
Security sources in Basra told The New Arab's Arabic edition that the vessel was intercepted in Iraqi territorial waters in the Arabian Gulf after failing to present official documentation verifying the origin or ownership of its cargo, which included some 250,000 tonnes of black oil.
A security official said the seizure took place near Basra Oil Terminal's side-loading platform and involved eight naval and port patrol boats.
The ship was inspected on Wednesday and found to be lacking proper legal papers. Authorities have given the vessel's operators a deadline to submit documents, after which the case would be referred to the judiciary.
The move comes as part of a tightening of maritime surveillance in Iraqi waters, following pledges by Baghdad to curb manipulation and illegal fuel exports, an issue that has long plagued the country's energy sector.
A senior Iraqi Oil Ministry official confirmed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed by phone that the seizure was part of a wider reform effort coordinated with Iraqi security forces to prevent smuggling through Basra's export terminals.
He said the government was under growing US pressure to prevent Iran from using Iraq's ports to export its own oil or blend it with Iraqi crude to evade sanctions.
"Several tankers flying foreign flags have now been blacklisted and barred from entering Iraqi ports," the official said.
In early July, the US Treasury Department sanctioned an Iraqi business network accused of smuggling Iranian oil under the cover of Iraqi documentation. The network was reportedly led by Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Saeed.
Washington has stepped up efforts to dismantle what it calls Tehran's "shadow fleet", which it says had been used to move sanctioned Iranian oil globally through intermediaries.
US Treasury Undersecretary Brian Nelson said in a statement at the time that Iran had continued "to rely on a shadowy network of vessels, shipping firms and brokers to facilitate its oil sales and fund its destabilising activities", pointing specifically to Saeed's network as having generated billions of dollars by masking or mixing Iranian oil with Iraqi shipments since at least 2020.
Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani acknowledged in a recent interview that the US had warned Iraq about potential sanctions against its state oil marketer, SOMO, over alleged sanctions violations involving Iranian-linked shipments.
In remarks aired on state television, Abdul Ghani said: "We received verbal inquiries regarding tankers that were detained by US naval forces in the Gulf while carrying Iraqi shipping manifests, which turned out to be Iranian vessels using forged Iraqi documentation."
He maintained that SOMO operates transparently and had committed no violations.
Security expert and former Basra provincial adviser Ahmed Al-Fatlawi told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Iraqi government was actively implementing reforms to address smuggling networks and export manipulation.
"Important steps have been taken, including adding names and companies to a blacklist," he said.
He added that Baghdad's efforts had sought to shield Iraq's oil sector from possible US sanctions due to Iranian use of nearby Iraqi export channels to bypass international restrictions.